Sunday, July 22, 2012

Tour de Watertower - 2012

I only heard about the Tour de Watertower
about a month ago. It is a race to the various water towers of Seattle. Of
course, if you know anything about water towers, you might remember that
they tend to be placed at the tops of hills. In effect this race was a
trip up seven of the cities biggest hills.

The race isn't really a true Alley Cat
either because the route is given ahead of time. This gave the
competitors time to scout out various routes before the race. Not that I actually did that. It was
still an unsanctioned event, so no streets blocked for the competitors.
Much of the challenge is in the navigation of the city. Not just the
best route to take, but how to avoid cars and stoplights.

Instead
the race was a time trial. Cyclists were sent out every two minutes
from Cool Guy Park. My slot was at 3:10. From there it was right up the
hill to Volunteer park. By the time I got there I had already lost my
manifest. That is the piece of paper that means you made it to the stop.
Whoops. I am still flabbergasted at my ability to loose the manifest
before the first stop. It was too late to go back, so I had the guy
manning the first stop sign my arm and took off again.

I
went up to the water tower on Roosevelt, then made another mistake. I
thought 85th would take me across the freeway. It didn't. I ended up
going to 92nd before I could cross and come back.

After
the water tower at Woodland Park Zoo I did do one thing right. I took
the Aurora bridge. That saved me a few hundred feet of climbs. Though it
was still a struggle to get from there to the top.

From
Queen Anne it was down and up Dravus to the water tower on Magnolia.
The ride down from there was amazing. The sun was out. The city and
Elliot bay were gorgeous. I zipped through traffic and pedestrians all
along the waterfront.

I did make another mistake in
West Seattle too. I never looked up the cross streets for the water
tower on the North side. Since I had lost my manifest I had to look it
up on my phone. That took a couple of minutes, but I got there.

Then
it was up to High Point. I live less than 10 blocks from the highest
place in the city, so I felt like that was home turf. Getting to the
towers there was no problem.

Then it was a race to the
finish. I bombed down 35th. I will admit it gets a little scary
screaming down that hill. Nothing scared me more than the fixed gear
rider next to me though. He would stop pedaling to slow down. This would lock the back tire and the bike would fishtail. The sound was awful and I was sure the guy was going to wreck at any moment. Ride whatever bike you like, but
I will take one with breaks any day.

I did make one
final navigation error. I knew the finish was on Eastlake, but with no
manifest, I didn't know where. I overshot the place by 10 blocks and
down a hill. So to finish I had to come back up to the top. Urgh.

All
in all, I had a great time. I could not have asked for a nicer day. It
wasn't as grueling as I expected, either. I still felt good turning
around and biking back to West Seattle. I would also like to thank Greg
from Go Means Go for putting it on.